Position in chronology
MVN 18, 636
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119997.
Transliteration
[n] ma-[an-sim ...] [n] 4(disz) ma-an-sim# [...] [n] ma-an-sim zi3#?-[...] [n ]ma#-an-sim nig2-ar3#-[ra] [n ]ma#-an-sim duh [n ]su7-su7 [n ]gur# nag [kin esir2] su#-ba [n kid ... ki-la2-bi n] 1(disz) sar [n] nig2-ar3-ra# [...] x gid2-da [...] gi? [...] lugal#?-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 636. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P119997) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119997..
Related tablets
Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.